The Hunted Berlin Part 2: Wolf in sheep's clothing
by Green Kobold
Summary: Based on a web-series that now has it's own movie. Check out "The Hunted" on YouTube. Ingo survived the Vampires' attack and has started to recruit a team. Now they need training. How convenient that a real professional is all too ready to help him out...
1. Chapter 1

The picture faded in and showed three young men in sports clothing, standing in a sports-hall. Two of them looked like they were in their early to mid twenties while the third one, a man with shoulder-length hair, was older, heading for thirty. He was the first to speak.

"Hello and greetings from Berlin. I'm Ingo, these are Josch and Niklas, slayers in training", the two waving into the camera. Niklas was a burly blonde and Josch a slim half black, half white mix. Both of them were noticeably taller than Ingo. "And behind the camera is Micha, our technical genius. (Say hi, Micha.)" A hand came into view from behind the actual picture, gave a short wave and disappeared again.

"And hiding somewhere is Conny, our only lady in the team." He looked over his shoulder and said: "Conny, say hi to our audience." He stepped aside to unblock the view on a young, pretty, pale-skinned, slim woman with long hair, dyed in black. She shyly waved into the camera and stepped out of view again, obviously not wanting to be filmed.

"We're waiting for a real professional, Christopher from the USA, who has been hunting vampires for over twenty years now and who, according to his website, is a direct successor of Abraham van Helsing. Such descent carries obligation."  
While he spoke so, Ingo turned towards his laptop behind him, showing a homepage called "SLAYER-TRAINING!" (the title written in a flashy, comic-book style).

"So now we are eagerly awaiting the trainer's arrival," he said, smiling.

He looked different from the first time he had uploaded videos on the internet. The shoulder-length hair and the little belly were still there, but he had clearly lost some of his boyish radiance, though not completely. There also remained some slightly confused element in his appearance.

Suddenly a man entered the training-hall with the confident bearing of someone who has seen it all and knows everything, holding his head (and his nose in particular) high in the air.  
He looked at the little group of people, dropped his training bag and placed his fists on his hips. "Is this it?!" he asked in very American accentuated English. He either wasn't able or willing to hide his disappointment. "This better be good. I don't want to have made this trip for nothing."  
Perplexed by his reaction, the group of wannabe slayers froze. The short man marching like a drill sergeant, looking at them dismissively, continued: "I am Christopher! I am THE man for training new slayers and if slayers wouldn't have been around for centuries, I would have invented them! Nobody else has more experience in recruiting newbies to our ranks and in training them to pursue those who would destroy us!"  
Micha zoomed in onto the trainer's face, which was acknowledged with a grim look.  
"And one more thing: the reason why I'm not constantly being hunted is that I keep covering my tracks, which includes that I don't allow people to film or take pictures of me and even less put them on the internet like all those stupid slayers whose faces every single vampire in the world knows by now! Turn it off immediately!" he ordered in a harsh tone, anger flashing in his brown eyes. Micha turned the camera off. "Now give me that chip-card!" Christopher bellowed. Micha removed the card and handed it over to the trainer who immediately broke it and put the pieces in his pocket. "Don't film me again!" he ordered. "Now show me what weapons you have."

While the trainees went to pick up the swords they had purchased, Ingo sneakily turned on the tiny camera that was build into his laptop and was barely visible. It would film the whole event from there on.


	2. Chapter 2

It filmed how Ingo said bye to Micha, who had only come to film, but not participate in the training. For some odd reason his head always stayed above frame even when he left the hall.

Ingo asked Christopher with his slight, German accent: "Excuse me, sir. Do you know Bob personally?" referring to the slayer in Los Angeles, who had warned him about the assassination-attempt on his life less than half a year ago and had finished off the vampire-leader who had organized it along with attacks on every known slayer in the world, as Ingo had found out on the internet. Slayers was the self-given name of people who have been bitten but decided to not be the hunted by, but the slayers of vampires instead.

"If I know Bob personally?" the slayer-trainer asked casually as if bored. "I'm one of the reasons he's in the business in the first place."

Before more questions could be directed at him, his tone turned harsh again while he threw a critical eye around. "Are these few people really all there is?!"

"Well, not yet" Ingo answered hesitantly. "There's another guy who wants to come today. He's answered to my advert…" The rude interruption was: "Advert?! What advert?!" Ingo went for a backpack next to his laptop. "I left an advert in a magazine for people who might be interested." He pulled aforesaid magazine out of his backpack and handed it to Christopher who looked at it for a second without taking it. It was an issue of "Gothic Lifestyle" and the editions headline said in German "How to live like you were a real vampire".  
Christopher looked at Ingo and asked in his usual tone: "You are aware that vampires read that kind of stuff too, aren't you?! They read them to laugh at all the wannabes and some even write for such magazines."  
As it began to dawn on Ingo that he may have made a huge mistake, a human figure appeared in the doorway. A shi "hi" was all the young man with a long bag was able to say before Christopher had him lying on the floor with his arm in a police-lock while patting him down for weapons. "Who are you?! Who sent you?!" the trainer exclaimed. "I – I here because of advert. Vampire-hunter-training?" the dressed in black man said in broken English, "I made phone-call." Ingo jumped to the rescue: "Yes, you are right here. You must be Florian. Pleased to meet you." He said in German. He turned to the trainer and switched to English again. "He's all right. That's the one who answered to the ad."  
You can never be careful enough" Christopher said while letting go of Florian. "But fortunately I am such a professional, that I can smell you're not a vampire. But we were interrupted; let's continue."

Florian awkwardly changed into training-gear and got himself into line, Christopher just continued with his speech.

"Today you're here for my course on the basics of being a slayer. I happened to be planning my yearly tour through Europe when I received Ingo's message that you're interested and made a special price since I've been to Berlin before and have other business here as well. Now!" He had a dramatic break. "How can you tell if a vampire is a vampire?"

He looked at the courses' participants with anticipation, but at this point they already were so perplexed by Christopher's way of talking and presenting himself that nobody dared to answer. Anyway his question seemed to have been a rhetorical one as he continued just after a few seconds of silence. "You can't unless he reveals it to you by extending his fangs, which are usually hidden. If he's unable to retract his fangs, he's no vampire! The only other way is when his eyes flash in red in a moment of uncontrolled anger or hunger. Once it is revealed to you they won't hide their skills, like their strength, speed or near indestructibility," he monologued while parading with his hands behind his back.

He looked out through a window of this sports-hall in Berlin-Treptow and seemed to notice something. "So the best way to find out is to make them reveal themselves. Follow me!" he said in his commanding voice while leaving the hall. Alarmed Ingo and the others did as told and followed, wondering what would come next. Christopher had left the building and with his hands still behind his back, seemed to head directly towards a passer by, who also happened to be a goth. By his looks he seemed to be undecided whether he tried to impersonate Gary Oldman or Brad Pitt in their vampire roles on the movie-screen. Within the blink of an eye the slayer-trainer had grabbed and wrestled down the wannabe-vampire, who started to swear and curse in embarrassment.  
"See?" Christopher said, "no way this could possibly be a real vampire or else he would have been able to offer more resistance to my attack!" He grabbed into the victim of his demonstration's mouth and pulled something out. In triumph he showed it to his students while literally sitting on his captive.  
"Fake!" he exclaimed, showing the artificial vampire-fang he had removed. "This is probably the worst attempt at fooling me I've seen in ages!"  
Finally he let go of the young man who ran in a panic. Ingo sent a silent prayer, to wherever, that he wouldn't call the police.  
"Now let that be a lesson," the trainer said while returning to the sports-hall.  
The others followed him in a hurry, hoping there were no witnesses to the incident apart from them.


	3. Chapter 3

Next followed an inspection and a dismissal of almost every single sword inspected, which was not too much of a surprise since they consisted of weapons for the stage or historical re-enactment and even some "wallhangers", swords for decorating a wall, that only looked good if kitsch is your thing, but should not be used in a real engagement. Only Ingo's original Prussian cavalry sabre, with its stamp from a smithy in 1820ies Solingen, impressed Christopher who, of course, didn't fail to point out that he was the only real expert in good blades.  
Eventually they did settle for some acceptable for training and went for it. There were a lot of technical terms and since most of the trainees were not so fluent in English Ingo, who spoke it best of the little group, had to translate on a regular basis. Christopher would say something to Florian like: "when your blade is in this position, just let it fall on the vampire's arm and disable it." And Ingo would translate it as: "wenn deine Klinge durch die Parade jetzt sowieso schon da ist, kannst du gleich auf der anderen Seite der Klinge entlang nach unten auf den Arm des Vampirs schlagen und ihn damit verstümmeln. Das gibt Dir Zeit um ihm anschließend den Kopf abzuhacken. Habe ich auch beinahe mal gemacht, wenn ich mich nicht gleich um einen zweiten Vampir hätte kümmern müssen."  
"Wow, that took long!" was Christopher's irritated comment on that.

At other times he would give instructions like: "you do the parry here and, as I said earlier, you move aside to gain ground and cover yourself at the same time; and then you snap with your blade to the other side to get almost behind the future dead meat. That way you get in a good position while staying safe." And Ingo would just say: "hier machst du die Parade und noch einmal diesen Seitenschritt von vorhin, nur diesmal hinter den Gegner." When Ingo didn't continue to add information, Christopher's eyes widened and he burst out: „and this one so short?! Geez! Why am I explaining so much?!" And so it went on.

Explaining of technique was followed by torturous drilling and even some muscle-exercises as punishment for sloppiness, which proved to be very effective as nobody wanted to do some extra push-ups when they could avoid them by trying to actually get it right in the first place.

After eight hours everybody was well exhausted, but happy. All the trainees stood in a row, as if they were in the military and their t-shirts, jogging-pants and sports-shoes were soaking in sweat, including Ingo's long-sleeved shirt. He was never seen wearing any shirt with short sleeves.

"Well, well, well, well; well, well, well", Christopher said parading in front of them, reminding everybody of an arrogant rooster. "I've seen many worse trainees than this group. But then, I've also seen better. "He turned towards the trainees: "some of you hold promise. Especially… you," he said, pointing at olive-skinned Josch. "But you are not too bad either," he added with a dismissive movement of his head, as if he hated to admit it, towards Ingo. "We covered a lot today. Well done everybody. You please leave now, except for you," he said pointing at Josch again. "I have something special for you," he said with a almost friendly smile. "The rest of you come back tomorrow at the appointed time. Don't wait for him now; it's going to take a little longer."

Trainer and trainees went for their bags which held their gear and after Niklas, Florian and Conny moved over to the changing rooms to have a shower, Ingo whispered into the still running camera: "I'm wondering what Josch will be telling us tomorrow." He turned the camera off with a smile.


	4. Chapter 4

The following morning Ingo, Conny and Niklas were already waiting in the hall when Florian entered. He wore an unusual item on his throat. A protecting peace of gear covering his throat and the sides of his neck, indented for ice-hockey.

Ingo had just taken a garlic-pill out of a little pillbox and looked at Florian for a second with a tired look on his face before putting it in his mouth. He swallowed it, still looking at Florian and asked: "what are you wearing THAT for?" Florian smiled and said: "I've seen that in a film. It's an anti-bite-protector."  
Niklas asked: "against vampire-bites?"  
"Yes," Florian beamed, being proud of his cleverness.  
That is until Conny mentioned, "umm, you do know that vampires can bite you everywhere? Not just in your neck and throat?" Florian's smile disappeared. "Really?" Ingo caressed his lower, left arm through his long sleeve with his right hand. "I can confirm."  
"I thought it was a good idea," Florian said while taking the throat-protector off and feeling embarrassed.  
Ingo didn't comment any further and set up his laptop.  
When Christopher entered the room, he quickly turned the camera on again.

"I'm as good as on my way to my next assignment for new recruits to our ranks. We need as many strong people as possible to crush our enemies. But I see a bit more potential here, " he said, throwing a meaningful look at Ingo. Perhaps another training day would be possible if the right cash is in it…?"

Ingo instinctively started to search his pockets and wallet, while the others, seeing him, did the same. The result was sobering. They scratched a together one single bill and a lot of change, adding to just about 70,- US $ in total.  
Christopher looked at it with a mixture of disappointment and disgust.

"You got to be kidding me!"  
And thus, there was no more training that day.


	5. Chapter 5

Two weeks later Ingo and Niklas were training with wooden swords in the very same sports hall.  
Niklas had found his favourite type of sword: a 1,05m (3,45 feet) long Sattelbaumschwert as the Germans called it in the 14th century, while the English called the same type a bastard sword. It suited his size of almost two metres (6,6 feet), he could wield it with two hands or with one and he was able to hide it under a long cloak. He could slash and thrust with it, even cut, if need be. Right now he only had his wooden waster, but he had already ordered a sword to be custom-made for him by a blacksmith who usually worked for historical reenactors.  
Ingo had the same type of waster and they were sparring intensely, wearing no armour, but a few padded gloves. Chances were low that in a real fight they would even have those.  
While Ingo actually preferred cavalry-sabres, he wanted to train with and against a as big as possible variety of blades. Right now he was playing the vampire, putting Niklas under as much pressure as possible, forcing him to keep his guard up and to look for a gap in Ingo's own. The wood would go "klock" when the blades were crossing. Sweat was dripping from their eyebrows.  
In a rush of adrenalin, Niklas was getting desperate and almost did a thrust, which would have ended in Ingo's face, if the later wouldn't have deflected it. A split second later Ingo's blade touched Niklas throat and they froze.  
"Don't let the adrenalin control you; it makes you stupid," Ingo said seriously.  
"You are faster than me, because you have some of the vampire-virus in you," Niklas said.  
"Yes. But don't forget that real vampires are even faster. You need to be in control of yourself and your actions to even think of having a chance of beating them."  
They dropped their arms, took a deep breath and smiled.  
"Anyway, I think it was a good training today. Too bad it wasn't the whole team." He turned to Conny and Micha with his camera who had been filming the whole training quietly. "Are you sure you don't want to start training yourself?" Micha, always the silent type, just shook his head.

Ingo went to his sports bag to get a towel and shower stuff.  
"Why were we so few today anyway?" was Niklas' question after a quick shower. (Micha and his camera had been absent during the shower.)  
"Florian called in 'sick'. He said he has trouble with his arm since the trainer last week had him in that police-grip. Funny. He trained the whole day afterward without complaining about it."

"And Josch?" Niklas asked.  
"I haven't seen him in a week."  
"Strange. I never noticed him missing a training before."  
"Yeahhh…" Ingo's forehead turned to wrinkles. Actually I haven't even heard a thing from him for two weeks. I hope he's fine." He took out his mobile phone and dialled Josh's number. After ten rings or so, he hung up again.  
"He doesn't pick up. Tell you what. I'm checking at his apartment now. He's living on my way home anyway."  
"I'm coming with you," said Niklas.  
"And me, too," said Conny.  
"All right," said Ingo

They grabbed their things and went on their way with Micha, who hadn't said anything of coming along, following anyway.


	6. Chapter 6

On the way to Josch's place they entered the U-Bahn, as the local subway is called, and sat in a box of four seats placed in order of two facing two. Ingo and Niklas were sitting on one side, while Conny was in front of Ingo and Micha was facing Niklas. For a while nobody said a thing. When Conny started to speak, Micha had mysteriously started to film again…  
"Isn't it racist to go after vampires?"  
Ingo stared at her in surprise. "Racist? What do you mean by that?"

"I mean aren't they another race?"  
Ingo thought for a second. "If so then they are a race that literally feasts on other races."  
Conny gave that a thought. "But we're just going after them because they are different."  
Ingo's forehead wrinkled. "I don't know why you are with me, but I was bitten by one vampire and two more tried to kill me while yet another one was filming it. They hunt me and I don't want to be the hunted for the rest of my life."  
"Aren't you even now?"  
Ingo was puzzled. "What?!"  
They tried to kill you and you killed them. You're even."

Undecided what to answer first, Ingo thought for a few seconds. Then he answered with a face that had an expression of tiredness. "I have explained it several times before. The ones who tried to kill me didn't do so all on their own. They were ordered to do it by some authority, because the vampires are organized. They didn't succeed. They might easily try again, which is why I moved, so they won't find me."  
"You only moved two blocks," Niklas threw in.  
"That's not the point," Ingo said with a quick glance at Niklas, "I'm just not where I used to be. Anyway, organized or not they are hunters who go after people. It's their nature."  
Conny's expression turned stubborn: "so you admit they only follow the instincts nature gave them. It's not their fault they do what they do and therefore are not to blame!"  
Ingo rubbed his eyes with an index finger and a thump. He hated that kind of discussion. Then he calmly replied: "I don't know if the virus that turns normal humans into vampires was created by nature, some deity or dark force or even some earlier form of science."  
"Earlier form of science?!" Now it was Conny's turn to look puzzled.  
"The earliest recorded real vampire was in Croatia in the 17th century and I don't know if the science of the day was able to create a freaky virus that turns humans into bloodsucking monsters. I honestly doubt it."

Conny clearly was about to give an answer, but Ingo quickly raised a finger and spoke: "nor does it matter now. I have shown you the videos. The only cure that kills the virus results in the virus killing its host and when you kill the host, the virus self-destructs in a spectacular way, dissolving the host completely." Ingo rolled his eyes for a second as he realized what a monstrous sentence he had just created out of thin air. Then he continued: "and the best part is that they extracted the cure from a sweet pastry not available in Europe. You have also seen that at least one filthy rich vampire is holding it back for profit's reason and there is, as far as I know, no further research done for an alternative. The only way to deal with them if they attack, left to us, is to fight them literally. And chances are, they will."

Conny's face remained stubborn. "Still, I think they have the right to be the way they are."  
Ingo looked at her. "Sometimes I don't know if you're a goth or a hippie in disguise."  
"The creatures of the dark are just misunderstood", Connie replied.  
Ingo sighed, turning his face up: "I'm sure your attitude will change once you get attacked yourself."  
Conny didn't reply, seeing that Ingo was serious. Then she thought for a few minutes. "If killing them is the only way to 'cure' them", she said making quotation marks with her fingers at the word "cure", "I think that's a hard thing to do."  
Ingo hesitated for a few seconds. Then he just said: "it needs to be done."  
"Yes, but…", Conny paused, "what if you have to kill a friend?"  
This time, Ingo didn't find the words for a reply.


	7. Chapter 7

They left the subway at a station in Friedrichshain and walked another 10 Minutes to the apartment house where Josch lived. Many old buildings from around 1900 where standing here and it was a very quiet area in comparison to Warschauer Strasse, which was nearby and known for partying.

Ingo rang Josch's doorbell several times, but there was no reaction. "Oh well, I'll write him an e-mail. I hope he's fine."  
"I never felt better," they suddenly heard a familiar and yet unfamiliar voice behind them. They turned around and saw a figure standing there in the dark, dressed all in black and with a dark complexion. Since the lights were not very bright, the figure reminded of a living shadow.

A sinister, lurking shadow.

A chill ran through our group.

"Is that you, Josch?" Niklas asked. "Yes," replied the voice, void of its usually friendly ring and sounding cold as ice.  
Ingo's hand moved to his bag, made for telescoping fishing-rods, which contained his sabre, and slowly opened the zipper.

"Why haven't you been to the training?" he asked calmly.

"I'm at a new training now," was the cool reply. Josch's teeth showed in the dark as he smiled.

A row of white pearls.  
"What kind of training?" asked Niklas again. He sounded nervous. His old friend seemed to give him chills.  
The same effect was catching Conny, who was shaking visibly.  
Micha's camera stayed steady, as it recorded everything.

"A training that teaches me to be a more effective hunter," Josch answered, slowly coming closer. His face moved into the light.  
It was Josch; all right. But his face lacked the softness and friendliness that were his usual trademarks. Instead his expression was hard and unmoving.  
While Josch had come closer, Ingo slowly had moved between Niklas and Conny on one and their unexpected encounter on the other side. He was nervous, too, but had been in a life-threatening situation before and was more able to handle it.

Everybody felt that this was indeed a life-threatening situation.  
For a few seconds they just stood there. Josch in his long, black fabric-cloak, arms hanging in a relaxed position at his sides. Ingo slightly hunched in his long, black leather-cloak, his right hand in his, diverted from its intended use, fisherman's bag. Ingo noticed the breathing of fear and nervousness behind him as did Josch, who also saw it and showed a terrible smile, which appeared more fang-like now.  
The tension was broken when Josch, quick as lightning, grabbed under his cloak, pulled out a katana and attacked, eyes flashing with a red light.  
Ingo didn't get to pull out his cavalry sabre, but slapped the attackers blade aside with his bag, hand on grip. The centrifugal force making the bag fly of his weapon.  
The fight that followed was furious.  
Prussian sabre versus Japanese long sword; technical skill and martial knowledge versus the ferocity, fearlessness and speed of a vampire.  
Josch was attacking while Ingo kept deflecting the attacks cleanly, his face stoney and practiced focus on his mind.  
Carefully watching his footwork, he lead the fight away from Conny and Niklas, while Josch followed being more busy with his attacks than paying attention to his surroundings. As soon as they had reached a certain distance from the others, Ingo shouted "RUN!" in their direction, which unfortunately also alerted Josch, who angrily noticed what Ingo had done and attacked faster now. Ingo had to dodge a strike that would have decapitated him if it would have hit him. Unfortunately the vampire saw it coming and jumped forward hitting Ingo on the head with the butt of his sword's grip, too quickly for Ingo to deflect. Ingo was knocked out cold.  
The bloodsucker grinned sadistically, baring his fangs, when he suddenly felt being knocked at the side of his head himself.  
Stars blazing in front of his eyes, he whirled around and saw Niklas, raising his wooden sword to give him another blow.  
Even though dazed, he easily displaced Niklas' strikes once, twice and then cut right through the wooden blade, leaving his opponent with a handle and cross guard.  
"Niklas," he said viciously, "always following, never leading. Just like when we were teens and now you have somebody new to follow and he leads you to death!"  
Josch raised his sword to kill his formerly best friend and reacted just in time to catch the blade of Ingo's sabre with his right hand, the edge cutting into the flesh between his index finger and thump. He turned and growled in anger, eyes flashing in red again, at Conny, who had picked up Ingo's weapon but didn't swing it with enough force. "I can't believe I almost fell for that twice!" he said and wrestled the sabre from her hand, which offered little resistance, and threw the blade away. He looked at his hurt hand in disgust.  
"I wanted to suck you dry," he said threateningly, "but now, I just want to see you suffer for this!" He slowly moved towards her, who started to back away from him. He liked the frightened look on her face and focused on her widely opened eyes.  
When her scared gaze flipped to the side and over his shoulder, Josch immediately turned his head. No way was he going to fall for that again!  
He was just in time to see a fist fly directly into his face, which connected hard. A second jab followed, to be continued by a full blow from Ingo's right fist.  
Staggering, Josch tried to swing his sword with just his left hand, but Ingo caught it with both hands, threw and disarmed the vampire over his leg, at the same time.

Josch rolled to a stand and turned to the little group of friends. Being hurt, dizzied, unarmed and facing Ingo, who now held his own katana, as well as Niklas, who had gotten up and now held Ingo's sabre, the creature of the night decided the situation too risky, though frustrating, to continue and ran.

The group of three just watched him run, too exhausted, too overloaded and shocked to follow him. Ingo slowly dropped the point of his newly claimed blade and turned around. He, Conny and Niklas looked at each other in silence. Then Ingo grabbed his forehead with his free hand and bent over in pain.  
"Oh my god! This headache is killing me!"  
"Are you all right?" Conny asked.  
"What did I just say?" Ingo whined.  
He stumbled to a little bench nearby and sat. "We have to disappear before the police shows up." He looked at the others. "I think you saved my life when I was knocked out."  
"It was Niklas who saved your life then," Conny said quickly.  
"It was Conny who saved my life right after," Niklas said.  
"And then you saved my life," Conny said again.  
Silence for a few seconds.  
"So we've all saved each other. Nice," Ingo concluded.

The camera went sideways like a shaking head and a hand with a raised finger appeared. "Except for Micha, who has been filming it all," Ingo corrected himself.  
A Hand appeared from behind the camera, raised a thump and disappeared again.  
"Anyway, let's get out of here."  
And so they did.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day Ingo showed up at his job as team-supervisor, which he, at the time, had had for just three months, with a big plaster on his forehead.

That was the cause for many jokes in his team, which he just commented with little self-ironic jokes of his own about his lack of skill in hammering a nail into a wall, an left it at that.

After work he did some research on the internet, sent some e-mails and talked to Conny and Niklas on the phone to agree on meeting again the following afternoon.

When they met in a little café he presented them the results of his research.

"I was thinking a lot about how and when Josch became a vampire. None of us have seen him since the training and the last man I know of to have seen him was the trainer. I wrote him and am still waiting for a reply.  
"So I had an idea.

"Even though the trainer destroyed the chipcard the actual film was on the little, internal hard disk of Micha's camera and we're lucky Christopher didn't think of it." A hand showed up in frame again with a index finger pointing up. "And of course Micha's favourite camera is lucky," Ingo said directly into the camera to make sure the point was made clearly. A thump up confirmed the notion. "We extracted a digital photo…" Micha was shaking his head, which made Ingo stop for a moment. "Ok. Micha extracted a digital photo from the few seconds of film we have that clearly show Christopher's face and I sent it by e-mail to Bob in California, together with an explanation of what happened here.  
"Bob wrote back and explained that for the last half year a vampire has been travelling the world, pretending to be a trainer for slayers while actually turning potential opponents into vampires themselves. But so far there have been neither name nor photo."  
"I think we now know who that is," Niklas said. "So what will we do?"

"I don't know," Ingo admitted. "I think Christopher is now long gone to some other place. I think we should look for Josch and for this new training he mentioned. It must be somewhere and we haven't seen anything of the vampires' organisation yet, either." He continued to talk and was about to get carried away when he noticed that Niklas and Conny weren't participating as the normally would

They both appeared nervous to him. "How are you?" he asked.  
Niklas was quicker to answer: "Sad," he said.  
"Sad?" Ingo asked.  
"It's like my best friend died and tried to kill me from the grave. That thing we met two nights ago wasn't the Josch I knew."  
"Can you handle it?" Ingo asked again.

After a short break Niklas answered: "Yes. It's just that the vampire-thing became more real than I like it to be." He looked Ingo straight in the face. "Next time I'll be more prepared." Ingo acknowledged that with a nod and a serious face. He knew that Niklas was a brave guy at heart.  
"How about you?" he asked Conny.  
She answered a bit hesitantly. "I've never been so scared in my whole live. He wanted to hurt me out of pure pleasure. It was so clear that he wanted to. He left absolutely no doubt about it." Oh dear, Ingo thought. I hope she's not going to break. She's always been so sensitive. He decided for a careful approach.

"Can I help you with that?"  
Conny didn't even appear to thin, but gave a straight answer: "Yes, you can teach me to fight better! How did you punch that thing? That wasn't swordfighting!"

Ingo was totally surprised. "Err, that was boxing," he stammered.  
"I have to learn that! And the throw? What was that?"  
"Jiujitsu," Ingo informed with a broad smile.  
"You have to teach it all to me! I never ever want to feel that helpless again!" Conny's face showed her stubbornness again.  
"Me, too!" Niklas exclaimed with a determined face.  
Ingo's smile broadened even more, his eyes gleaming with boyish joy. "Yes! I will teach you everything I know! And together we will learn to be even better! Training tomorrow?"  
"Today!" Niklas and Conny spoke in unison. Ingo was puzzled and positively exited at the same time by their unexpected enthusiasm.  
"Ok. Training every day from now on. Let's do some unarmed self-defence today. We have a lot to do…" 

To be continued…


End file.
